THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



tized needle seem to have been quite unknown — Rt 

 least its possibilities of practical aid to the navigator 

 were utterly unsuspected — until well into the Middle 

 Ages. There is every reason to believe — though 

 absolute proof is lacking — that a knowledge of the 

 compass came to the Western world from the Far East 

 through the medium of the Arabs. The exact channel 

 of this communication will perhaps always remain 

 unknown. Nor have we any clear knowledge as to the 

 exact time when the all-important information was 

 transmitted. We only know that manuscripts of the 

 twelfth century mentioned the magnetic needle as an 

 implement familiar to navigators, and from this time 

 forward, we may feel sure, the new possibilities of ex- 

 ploration made possible by the compass must have 

 suggested themselves to some at least of the more 

 imaginative minds of each generation. Indeed there 

 were explorers in each generation who pushed out a 

 Httle into the unknown, as the discovery of various 

 groups of Islands in the Atlantic shows, although the 

 efforts of these pioneers have been eclipsed by the 

 spectacular feat of Columbus. 



The exact steps by which the crude compass of the 

 Orientals was developed into the more elaborate and 

 delicate instrument famiUar to Western navigators 

 cannot be traced by the modem historian. It is known 

 that sundry experiments were made as to the best form 

 of needle, and in particular as to the best way of ad- 

 justing it on approximately frictionless bearings. But 

 a high degree of perfection in this regard had been at- 

 tained before the modem period ; and the compass had 



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